shain

My 2 cents: Do try to make dishes they will relate to, but also show local cuisine. Avoid "sensitive" dishes, as in dishes who requires specific flavoring or preparations that you are likely to miss (think for example of a Chinese tasting american-Chinese food). Such problematic dishes are hummus and falafel. Do provide plenty of vegetables and salads, they are a critical part of a meal in the middle east and the western cuisine tends to underwhelm in this aspect. And since you mentioned coffee, consider getting some ground cardamon to add to it, some may appreciate it.

I agree with the people here saying that casseroles doesn't have to be heavy or include pasta at all. @Alex I do love a good kugel! (due you can't say this is a light dish at all ) You can consider an eggplant Parmesan (which is easy to make lighter if reducing cheese and grilling the eggplant rather then frying). A lasagna or cannelloni is a nice idea. Also quiches of any kind are always a putluck favorite of mine. A couple of more specific suggestions: Pasta casserole with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, plenty of basil and garlic - very summery and light - an absolute favorite of mine. Spanakopita (filo dough filled with spinach and feta) Ma'akuda - mashed potatos and eggs casserole, with carrots and chickpeas. Pasta casserole with sour cream and scallions - another light hearted dish. Quiche with roasted peppers and goat cheese.

Maklouba (Arabic for upside-down). An hearty rice dish with baharat spice mix (mostly cumin, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper and turmeric). Roasted eggplant slices, cauliflower and carrot slices. Also plenty of chickpeas and caramelized onion. Topped with toasted pine nuts. It may sound involved, but it is an easy dish to make. The common preparation is to fry the vegetables, but this results in a dish that is too rich and oily to my taste, so I roast them. It is also very common to add chicken, which I do not. If you do eat chicken, it is possible to add it, use roasted chicken thighs instead of some of the vegetables (make sure not to over cook them, as they will steam further in the rice). Rice can be boiled in water, or for better flavor, in chicken or vegetable stock. If using stock, there is no need to discard it after cooking the rice in it, it can be used later. The rice starch will give it some extra body. Make sure to use a non-stick pot or to grease it well. I use an anodized aluminium pot which works wonders. If using a gas stove, make sure the pot has a thick bottom for even cooking. Ingredients about 60 g dry chickpeas (150g ounce cooked, about a cup) 1/2 teaspoon salt a pinch of baking soda for faster cooking 2 small eggplants or a single large one, unpeeled, sliced 1.5cm (1/2in) thick (apx. 600 g) 1 small cauliflower, separated to bite size clusters (apx. 400-500g) 2 carrots, thinly sliced (3mm / 1/8in) (apx. 200g) 1 large onion, diced 2 large cloves garlic, minced 2 tomatoes, diced olive oil or butter 1.5 cups long grain rice (basmati or jasmine) 2 to 2.5 teaspoons salt 0.5 teaspoon hot chili flakes bahart spice mix (see below, 7 teaspoons) 2 tablespoons lemon juice 3 tablespoons milk or stock 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 2 tablespoons well toasted pine nuts for bahart, total of 7 teaspoons (you can use store bought instead, but I prefer to make it to my taste as follows): 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1.5 teaspoons ground cumin 0.5 teaspoons ground turmeric 1 teaspoon ground allspice 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 2 bay leaves (no need to grind) Preparation Soak rice in water overnight, or soak in hot water for 30-60 minutes. Cook chickpeas in 2 cups of water, with salt and baking soda, until completely soft. Chickpeas can be cooked a day ahead, but must not be cold when mixed into rice. Preheat oven to high heat (250 degC / 460 degF), use convection mode if possible. Brush eggplant slices, carrot slices and cauliflower florets in oil. Roast until cauliflower is browned and slightly charred, yet quite firm and carrots are slightly softened, about 10 minutes. Remove carrots and cauliflower. Flip eggplant slices and bake until dark brown, another 10 minutes. Bring 6 cups of water or stock (without added salt) to a rolling boil. Add rice and cook like pasta until rice is partly cooked, but still firm in the grain's center. About 4 minutes. Drain rice (do not discard stock, if using, see note above). Wash rice under some cold water to stop cooking. Drain well. cook onion in some oil until browned. Add garlic,salt and all the spices. Cook on a small fire for a minute or two until aromatic. Remove from heat. Mix rice into onion and spice mixture. Add lemon juice, milk or stock, tomatoes and chickpeas. Mix well. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of oil (or butter) into a heavy non-stick pot (about 25cm / 10in), spread oil over bottom and sides. evenly cover the pot with a layer of rice and pack well. layer vegetables and rice in the pot. Cover pot with a thin towel or cheesecloth. Cover with a tight lead. Place on high heat for 10-12 minutes, until sizzling can be heard. Lower to very weak heat and cook covered for 40 to 50 minutes. Place pot on a wet towel to chill it's bottom and make the ricer less likely to stick. Uncover and place a platter on top of pot. Swiftly flip pot and platter together and place on counter. Tap firmly, as needed, to release rice from pot. Sprinkle pine nuts and parsley. Serve immediately. In those photos I used feta cheese instead of pine nuts, also, the crust is a little paler then I like.

I'm a huge fan of Ottolenghi , I really like who takes dishes and flavor combinations that I know and grow up on, but elevates them to a new level using new methods and clever additions that keep the dish essence while making it greater than the original. I also never followed a recipe of his to less than stellar results. Chris, your dish looks lovely. I guess those are mint leaves? What is the source of the pinkish color? Please do keep posting your way through this book.

Chocolate fondant (with extra salt), filled with cherry preserve and kirsch. Those two were frozen un-baked a couple of moths ago. Iv'e quickly baked them this evening in an oven toaster for me and my brother. Chocolate and cherries (and alcohol) is such a wonderful combination.

Host's note: this topic is part of an extended series that is broken into segments to reduce load on our servers. The previous segment may be found here. Early afternoon dinner. Maklouba (Arabic for upside-down). An hearty rice dish with homemade baharat spice mix (mostly cumin, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper and turmeric). Roasted eggplant slices, cauliflower and carrot slices. Also plenty of chickpeas and caramelized onion. I usually top it with pine nuts, but opted for ewe milk feta this time. The common preparation is to fry the vegetables, but this results in a dish that is too rich and oily to my taste, so I roast them. It is also very common to add chicken, which I do not. Cold ouzo with spearmint makes a lovely digestif a warm afternoon. Edit: I posted the recipe in another thread:

Next years avocados: A tomato plant who grow by itself until I discovered it today:

@FrogPrincesse I love sumac, and this combination sounds very nice! Corn and egg drop soup. With soy sauce, sliced baby corn, black pepper, chili, scallions, sesame oil. Stock is vegetarian made from shiitake mushrooms and kombo. Half of the corn kernels were pureed until milky smooth and the rest left intact. Cornstarch added to the eggs prevents it from overcooking. This is a very quick soup to make.

My apologies for not responding in time. I am very happy to know that you enjoyed this cake! The recipe was not clear enough, so I've edited it. I use 15-20g in the batter and an additional ~7g for the syrup. However, as you noted, this is not an exact amount, and can be adjusted to taste.

It is uncommon for me to cook launch during weekdays, as I usually eat at work. However today I was free at home until past noon and had a chance to cook a quick pasta dish. An honorable heatwave required a refreshing summery meal. Bucatini in yogurt sauce and crispy toasted lentils (yum!), with garlic, dill, parsley, lemon peel, hot chili, fennel seeds, black pepper, cumin and a little Pecorino Romano. Greek yogurt would have given the sauce more thickness, but I didn't had any. If you never tried toasting lentils or chickpeas, do give it a go. Bonus of cooking for yourself alone: you can eat straight from the cooking pan

Early dinner today (BTW, out of curiosity, do you usually eat dinner around midday or by evening?) Fatayer pitta. These are one of my two favorite "fast foods", the other being hummus (happily, those are the only fast food I really get to eat). While hummus is a weakly affair, those pittas are sadly less common on my table (so many tasty things - so little time ). They are made in a near by town, at a small family business. They mostly sell vegetables during weekdays, but at weekends they prepare many cooked dishes and baked goods. These are made using strong elastic pitta sough, rolled paper-thin and essentially laminated with good olive oil. Then a variety of chopped seasonal herbs and plenty of spinach is layered on top. This time of year Iv'e noticed malva leaves (here it's called "hubezza", a wild mallow) and white chard. The laminated dough is folded to enclose the leaves, rested, then stretched thin, with great skill, using only the two hands. It is baked on a large flat gas fired saj oven (a domed sheet of metal used as a griddle, heated from below). It is grilled on very high heat from both sides, until charred in spots and mostly browned. The high heat allows the dough to stay soft and mist, yet flavorful and crisp at the charred spots, very much like a Neapolitan pizza. The leaves cook and soften inside and lose some green notes, yet retains their fresh herbal flavor. The plentiful high quality olive oil gives them richness and also it's own flavor. Served while still very hot, This bread is a meal of it's own. Iv'e tried to make it myself a couple of times, but to inferior results. I am sadly lacking the proper oven, and more important, lacking the skill of of stretching the dough this thin after being filled. Served with a tabbouleh salad, made with parsley from our garden, mint, cucumber, tomato, scallion, bulgur, plenty of lemon juice, sumac and olive oil. Labbaneh with zaatar mixture made by a friend. Both are amazing, the cheese is perfectly tart and just slightly bitter. The zaatar is warm flavored, with dark toasted sesame, warm and herbal dry zaatar leaves and a little tart sumac. Ate it with tomatoes, onion and green olives (pickled with lemon, onion a little clove). Also bought rice filled cabbage. Those will be for later on today. They are gently flavored with allspice, and perhaps something more.

This makes one not very large cake in an "English cake" pan (26x6.5 cm / 10x2.5 inch). You may want to double up the recipe and make two FoOr variation, you can use any citrus, and add mixins such as poppy seeds, candied ginger, sumac, raspberries, etc. Please tell me if you make it, I really hope that you will like it! Lemon-mandarin pound cake Batter: 140g white flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder (7 g) 190g white sugar 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt (1.5 g) 15-20g fine zest from a lemon and an orange/mandarin 160g labaneh or tart Greek yogurt or (5% fat or more) 2 large eggs 45g olive oil - aromatic, but not too vegetal, you can use natural oil if preferred 1 teaspoon vanilla extract For syrup: 25g sugar apx. 7-6 g of long and thin stripes of peel (zest) from a lemon and an orange/mandarin - see photo below for reference Apx. 45g lemon juice Method: Heat oven to 170 deg C (340 deg F). Grease one pan. Prepare 3 mixing bowl: one of them should be quite large and another should be a mixer bowl to beat the egg whites in. In the small bowl, measure flour and baking powder. In the large bowl, mix sugar, fine citrus zest and salt. Let it rest while you proceed. Separate eggs, placing egg whites in the empty mixer bowl and the yolks in the large bowl with the sugar and zest. Add yogurt, vanilla and oil to the bowl with the sugar and yolks. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Beat yolk-sugar-yogurt mixture until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Fold the egg white foam into the yolk mixture, until smooth and almost uniform. Sieve flour and baking soda mixture over the liquids. Fold from the bottom up just until uniform. Do not over mix. Pour into greased pan. Bake for apx. 45 minutes. A skewer should go out cleanly. The cake should rise to fill the pan and get a tan color. Do not over bake. While the cake bakes, make the syrup: Mix together sugar and peel stripes (long zest). Mix well for the sugar to draw flavor from the peel. Add about the lemon juice and mix well until the sugar dissolves. If it doesn't, heat the syrup very briefly. When the cake is out of the oven, pierce it all over with a thin skewer or toothpick. Pour the syrup over the cake while it is still hot from the oven. Spread the remaining syrup soaked peel strips over the cake. Let chill and store in an airtight container, or wrapped in nylon. For variation, you may add candied orange peel, poppy seeds, mint, raspberries, etc.

Iv'e translated and uploaded the recipe for you: These are sold in my local spice/grains/nuts/etc shop. They sell three variants, large imported american almonds, another large one from unknown source, and the small ones, which are locally grown. They usually taste fresher and cheaper as a bonus (otherwise, the flavor is the same). They also sell bitter almonds, which I really need to buy and get myself to make some marzipan (another favorite of mine). Just like most seeds, sesame seeds growד with a thin protective shell. It is usually removed when processing the seeds, and before grinding them into tahini. So wholemeal tahini is simply made with unhulled seeds. It has a darker grey-brown color, some small dark specks from the bran. It has better nutritional value. The taste is nuttier, with light bitterness, and some more complex flavors. It those, however, has some flavors that are unpleasant in certain cases. For example, it just can't be used (IMO) in savory tahini sauce. I do like it better in sweet preparations, where it's complexity of flavor and butty-bitterness are balanced by sweetness.

Made with tahini paste (part of it wholemeal), butter, honey, vanilla, flour, cornstarch, some salt (no eggs). Topped with toasted almonds. Those has a strong nutty sesame flavor, the vanilla and honey round it with a floral note and just enough sweetness to feel like a treat. The salt gives a gentle kick. Texture wise, those are like a pate sablee, with slightly sandy melt-in-the-mouth creaminess. Those are some of my favorite cookies to eat, but I rarely make them. Makes 23-25 small cookies, can be doubled as long as it fits in your food processor. 135 g flour 40 g cornstarch (you can use finely ground almonds instead, if you do, reduce apx 10g tahini) 30 g sugar 1/8 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 70 g cold butter, cut into cubes 40 g honey 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon butter extract (it's not a must, use if you have it on hand) 110 grams tahini paste (if you want, you can use part or wholemeal tahini. Whatever you do, make sure to choose a good tahini, with a strong nutty flavor, and a gentle sweetness, avoid tahini with notable bitterness) 1/2 tablespoon water 25 small toasted almonds (peeled or unpeeled) - You can also use toasted pistachios (tastier, but not as pretty) or spread toasted sesame seeds Preheat oven to 170 deg C. In a food processor mix together flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add butter, honey, vanilla and butter extract. Blend in pulses until the mixture is a slightly grainy powder and seems uniform. Add tahini and water. Process until dough begins to form. Transfer mixture to working surface or a wide bowl. Using hand or spatula, fold together once or twice to form a dough. Create small balls and place them on a baking pan lined with a baking sheet. Slightly flatten each ball to an apx 1/2 inch (1cm) height. The cookies will not flatten further during baking. Push an almond into the top of each cookie. (Alternatively, roll cookies in sesame seeds prior to flattening) Bake for about 18-20 minutes, until just very lightly golden. Let cool completely.

What ever is in hand reach, usually tissue

Tahini cookies (aka halva cookies). Made with tahini paste (part of it wholemeal), butter, honey, vanilla, flour, cornstarch, some salt (no eggs). Topped with toasted almonds. Those has a strong nutty sesame flavor, the vanilla and honey round it with a floral note and just enough sweetness to feel like a treat. The salt gives a gentle kick. Texture wise, those are like a pate sablee, with slightly sandy melt-in-the-mouth creaminess. Those are some of my favorite cookies to eat, but I rarely make them. The almonds are tiny, by the way, no larger then my fingernail.

Been away from home for a week, with very limited access to ingredients and cooking utensils. Made some things during that time, but mostly nothing noteworthy. However, I did "cook" some canned tuna (not for me, as I don't eat fish nor meat). It is a known outdoors preparation that I thought you may find interesting. Essentially a piece of paper is inserted into a can of oil-packed tuna and set aflame. The oil in the can burns for a good while (more then half an hour), during which the tuna warms and gets a smokey flavor. The meat eaters among us swears it tastes like grilled young chicken.

Take a look at this recipe collection in Serious Eats . They have plenty of unique and simple recipes, many of which are savory.

It does sound good, and when Kenji say that this is his best recipe, now that means something. I'd start by doing the following modifications: - Peel the roasted garlic cloves before simmering them. - Add all of the tare ingredients to the stock for the last 30 minutes of cooking, instead of simmering it separately. - Use imerssion blender. - Slice open the charred eggplant and return to the oven for a while to let moisture boil of, instead of spinning it dry.

Did anyone tried making Kenji Alt's vegan ramen? Link I wanted to make it for a while, but it's a bit involved and I never got to it. I would probably streamline it a bit. And add a soft egg.

If you have more of those beans, I encourage you to try them in pasta è fagioli (with rosemary, celery, loads of black pepper. Puree half the beans and drizzle good sharp evoo). Those beans are just perfect for this dish and has such a beautiful tan color when cooked. After first tasting it made with them in Bellagio, I no longer make it with any other kind.

Seems right to me.

You can review the topic I started about the same product in the savory cooking forum: As stated there, I use it for bread baking and recently in mashed potatoes.

I usually eat oatmeal porridge in a slightly sweet form as breakfast, with cinnamon and fruits. I'm not a fan of savory oatmeal porridge. However, oats can be used in many savory dishes as a component without reducing any of it's health benefits, you might find that you do like it in those forms. To name a few: roasted tomato soup thickened with oats and blended until smooth, oatmeal pancakes and muffins (also savory muffins), non rolled oats can be cooked into a rissoto-like form (with mushrooms, cheese, herbs, or whatever you like in rissoto). To stick with your Indian direction, you can cook it with lentils and some vegetables such as sweet potato, tomatoes, onions, or whatever, spicing to your preference.

Nachos supreme with black beans, cheddar and smoked chipotle sauce, tomatoes, pickled jalapeno, onion, coriander. Iv'e placed the sour cream and guacamole in the center of the dish after baking (there are almost no chips beneath it), it gave the dish a much more "organized" look than I intended, nachos should be a kind of messy looking dish, IMO, it;s part of what gives it this junky-delicious appeal. Should have also placed the cheese on top for the same reason That's said, it was delicious!